Mobile communication devices, such as cellular phones, have become ubiquitous not only on the business world, but also in the home environment. Many users not only have a device for work, but another device for personal/home use. Some may have multiple devices associated with work and for personal use. With increasing connectivity, and a mobile workforce, the hours and location of home and business life are merging.
There are advantages and disadvantages to mixing home life with business life and although there are many advantages, a problem of determining the correct “context” occurs. Most of the time, the context of a user's activity is only kept in their mind. Without a separation of context (e.g., between work and home), a user tends to be working all of the time, which can lead to a great deal of frustration and exhaustion. There are a few exceptions to this general condition. Most exceptions only apply the concept of “context” to a specific area of a communications application such as bookmarks within a browser, filters for advertising content within a browser and/or other very specific applications.
No known art describes changing the context of a device from a work device to a personal device based on a combination of “temporal and spatial context, e.g., time, location, proximity, etc. and the user's activities on the device at the time described in this Invention Disclosure Record as “Use Context”. This may be one of the reasons so many people possess two separate mobile devices for work and home or even two separate sets of mobile devices. The problem gets worse for the small business user that may have several businesses that each include a “use context” as well as the user's personal device. Similarly, the problem expands if multiple people, each with multiple “use contexts” share a device on either a temporary or permanent basis.